Players out of options

Tim Dierkes from the terrific site mlbtraderumors.com e-mailed this morning asking for a list of out-of-options Brewers for a project they are working on. I, in turn, went to the equally-terrific Brewerfan.net because the guys there spent a lot of time this winter coming up with an accurate list.

With Spring Training about to begin, it’s a good time to start thinking about that list and how it could play into the decisions ahead. So, courtesy of Brewerfan’s Mass Haas, here are the 40-man roster members who are out of options:

Todd Coffey

Craig Counsell

Doug Davis

Jody Gerut

Corey Hart

LaTroy Hawkins

Joe Inglett

Hernan Iribarren

George Kottaras

Chris Narveson

Manny Parra

Jeff Suppan

Claudio Vargas

Rickie Weeks

I’d say the key guys there are Inglett and Iribarren, who will be vying for backup infield spots, Kottaras, who is among a field of potential backups to catcher Gregg Zaun, and Narveson and Parra, lefties who will try to win rotation spots. Narveson is probably a long shot given the team’s other options. The fact that Parra is out of options make it very likely, if you ask me, that he will make the team.

Additionally, these are the guys who have options but also have five-plus years of Major League service and could refuse the assignment:

Dave Bush

Trevor Hoffman

David Riske

Randy Wolf

Gregg Zaun

Bush is notable there, given that the Brewers have six or seven starters (depending on whether you count Narveson) for five spots at the moment.

So there you have it. We can refer back to this list as the decisions come more into focus in Spring Training.

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